Monday, November 26, 2018

Crisis Chronicles Press is ecstatic to announce the imminent publication of Chris Stroffolino's long-awaited new book, Drinking From What I Once Wore: Selected and Recent Poems.

Drinking From What I Once Wore is 6x9" perfect bound, over 100 pages, and features cover art by Rachel Thoele. ISBN: 978-1-64092-970-8. This volume features 49 works including "Cusps," "The Dart of the Eel," "First World Problems," "Variations of 21st Century Pop Songs," "2 Dramatic $onnets for the Con$umer $ociety," "Commercial Interruptions," and the Pushcart Prize nominated "Questions for Google Home."

Available for $12 US from Crisis Chronicles Press, 3431 George Avenue, Parma, Ohio 44134 USA. Pre-order now and we'll send it to you in December.

Where are you?

Love for Chris Stroffolino and Drinking From What I Once Wore:

"Maybe all life is preparing for 'The test/ We can only pass if we waste
no time/ thinking we can study for it.' If so, Chris Stroffolino's
carelessly brilliant poems would be as invaluable as cliff notes. In any
case they come in handy."

"There is no line of thought in [Stroffolino’s] poetry that can’t or doesn’t kick out a set of veins pumping blood to and from the dramatic qualities of its existence or an inverted conversion of the optimal antidote to its own fiercely depicted frailties. Chris has fought in his writing for a poetry that is intimate, musical, invested equally in Shakespeare & Joe Strummer and intensely personal without giving up the demand of rhetoric to be a necessity of passion rather than a muted counterbalance. His new book varies the tempo and carries these things through.

Chris Stroffolino is the author of 4 full-length books of poetry, as well as the memoir Death of a Selfish Altruist, two books of essays in poetry and culture criticism and, with Dave Rosenthal, a study guide to Shakespeare’s 12th Night. He currently lives in Oakland, California, where he has taught writing at Laney College since 2008.

Crisis Chronicles Press has had the honor of publishing many excellent books by very talented poets this year. Alas, the Pushcart people only allow us to make six nominations. I would have preferred to have chosen twenty, as there were so many worthy candidates. But after some lengthy and very difficult deliberations, I finally narrowed down the field and submitted the following Pushcart Prize nominations:

Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Finally home after a fine three-day mini trip (Pittsburgh, PA; Richwood, WV; Pomeroy, OH). I have one more reading
scheduled for this year and it's bucket list caliber - my first ever in
the heart of New York City, at the KGB Bar's Red Room with Kat Georges and Matthew Hupert. So looking forward to this!

Saturday, November 3, 2018

Last year I drove cross country to the west coast for the first (and so far only) time and it was one of the highlights of my life. So many good memories made! One of the best was having the opportunity to read with D.R. Wagner, M.J. Arcangelini and Matt Cook at the Octopus Literary Salon in Oakland, California, on July 19th. I am grateful to Paul Corman-Roberts for making it happen—as well as emceeing, snapping pics and videoing random bits of the proceedings.

There are two clips of me that I meant to link to on this blog last year—but then I got behind and it hasn't happened until now. You can check them out here:

One clip features "Dish Work," a poem inspired by Columbia Hills Country Club, where I worked as a dishwasher from around September 1986 to January 1987. It's also where I first met Geri, who was a waitress there at the time. The second clip catches me reading the first part of my poem "From Genesis to Exodus," a tribute to Prince.

"Dish Work" appears in my chapbook Water Works, first published in 2012 by recycled karma press and reissued in early 2017 as part of the Poets Haven Archive Series. "From Genesis to Exodus" was first published in Delirious: A Poetic Celebration of Prince (2016, NightBallet Press) and now also appears in my chapbook Loss and Foundering (2018, NightBallet Press).

Thursday, November 1, 2018

Pittsburgh is one of my favorite places to travel for poetry, and the last time I read there was August 2016. In other words, it has been far too long.This Sunday from 2 to 4, I'll have the honor of reading with Alyssa
Herron, Bob Walicki, Kara Knickerbocker, Nicole Onda
Grynd, Joshua Tarquinio and Sarah Washburn Thornton for the Hell's Lid Reading Series hosted by Miss Macross at the Full Pint Wild Side Pub, 5310 Butler Street, 15201.